Work proposes a temporary contract of three months maximum duration

The use of this route will be limited according to the size of the company
The contracts will be fixed if they are used for the same position for five months

The Government, employers and unions resumed their usual Wednesday meetings on Wednesday at the social dialogue table that discusses the modernization of the labor market, the so-called labor reform. During the meeting, government officials presented a new proposal document that includes, as the main novelty, a new wording of article 15 of the Workers' Statute to create a temporary contract "due to circumstances of production and substitution of the person worker”, which could be carried out in occasional activities and whose maximum duration would be three months. In addition, limits on its use are introduced depending on the size of the company.

The proposal comes after the tensions generated between the Government and employers after the Ministry of Social Security signed alone with the unions a 0.6 point increase in social contributions as the central axis of the intergenerational equity mechanism that must cover the extra cost of pensions that will generate the retirement of the generation of the baby boom.

During the meeting on Wednesday, the Ministry of Labour, which leads a table at which the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Social Security also sit, stated that the contract due to production circumstances and temporary substitution contracts have a maximum duration of three months, using usage limits based on the size of the companies.

Specifically, companies with fewer than five employees may only have one of these contracts, those with up to 10 employees, two, and large companies a certain percentage of their workforce in line with these proportions. For example, for templates of 10 to 30, there will be a maximum of three contracts of this type; from 101 to 500 employees will be 15 or, the 7%.

The margin will be somewhat higher in the specific case of agriculture. To prevent there being structural positions covered by chaining this type of contract, the Executive intends to force an indefinite contract if the eventuality reaches five months, according to detailed sources of social dialogue.

In turn, he proposed that training contracts limit their duration to between three months and two years, in the case of the alternating modality, or from six months to one year, for professional practice acquisition contracts. In parallel, the trial period would be unified to only one month. The discussion with the social agents on the age limits and the possibility of signing part-time training contracts is still pending.

Furthermore, the Government reiterated its willingness to recover the ultraactivity of the agreements as long as the parties do not reach an agreement to seal a new one, and to resume the prevalence of sectoral employment agreements over company ones, aspects that the labor reform changed of the PP of 2012.

On the other hand, union sources report, the Government maintains the wording referring to discontinuous permanent contracts, "a true bet to introduce seasonal jobs in indefinite contracts," says the UGT, as well as the wording of articles 41 and 42, of substantial modification of working conditions, and contracts and subcontractors, in which this union has been demanding to recover the wording prior to 2012.

In addition, Trabajo studies introducing specificities of the construction sector in the redesign of the permanent contract, within the simplification of contracts to only three models, fixed, temporary and training, which it intends.

New proposal of the Red model for Friday

In the field of current ERTEs, the Executive accepts the union's claim that if there are exemptions from the employer quota they are accompanied by guarantees of job maintenance.

One of the key measures of the labor reform that the Government aspires to agree with employers and unions is the redesign of the Temporary Employment Regulation Files (ERTE), in order to introduce new modalities linked to training for the post-pandemic era that allow companies face economic crises and retrain employees from sectors in decline.

After a first proposal that aroused criticism from both employers and unions, due to its rigidity and bureaucratic burden, Labor promised this Wednesday to present a new proposal on the following negotiation day to be held on Friday in order to iron out the redesign of the instrument for the next few weeks.

The objective of having a pact ready before the end of the year. This is the commitment reached with the European Commission within the framework of the Recovery Plan that governs the delivery of European aid, within which the labor reform will be one of the key keys to unblock the delivery of some 12,000 million euro.